We donít need your education

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2010

The curriculum is too long, overly prescriptive, constrains teachers and stifles innovation. The admissions system is a mess - a fact evidenced by extraordinary levels of social segregation between schools. Shifts in culture, power and finance: a way forward for education, a new report published today by the 2020 Public Services Trust, identifies these problems, and calls for future education and schooling to be address them by becoming more localised and more personalised.

A more personalised
and localised approach to education would boost the personal commitment of
learners and the collective engagement of learners, parents and communities. Forms
of accountability and governance should be designed with this in mind. The
national public interest in education focuses on higher attainment and greater
social justice and these objectives are also important locally. But these goals
must be delivered as far as possible in ways which are simple, transparent and
which empower local people to reconcile what is best for them and their
children and what is best for the community as a whole.

The report is based
on an in-depth discursive event organised by the 2020 PST with stakeholders in Peterborough to explore
how its Commission's principles could unlock the potential of our education
system:

A shift in culture - this
shift is likely to involve deeper pupil engagement in deciding what and
how they learn, and more parental and community involvement in creating an
education-driven culture. It means that teachers cannot have sole
responsibility for delivering results for students, but rather that
teachers offer good quality instruction, and students and parents engage
to extract the most value they can from it.

A shift in power - amore local approach to public
services, with power devolved down to citizens and local areas as much as
possible. In the context of education, this shift points towards more
freedom at the level of the teacher. Students, parents and teachers in our
deliberative research thought it was important for teachers to be able to
play to their strengths and areas of expertise, and to make learning as
relevant to their students as possible.

A shift in finance - the
Commission advocates a new approach to funding public services, which
involves far greater clarity about where money is raised and where it is
spent, and harnessing new resources and using funding to further the
purposes of services. Our deliberative research showed that fair distribution
is a priority concern for many parents, students and professionals. There is interest in models that could
reward and reinforce parental involvement in schooling; yet there is
caution about models which inadvertently stigmatise disadvantaged children.

Education is a
cornerstone of modern society. Providing a good education for children and
young people may be important for reducing national inequalities, ensuring the
workforce is skilled, enabling the country to compete in a globalised economy
and creating good citizens. However, as this research shows, for individuals,
the most important purpose of education is to
give children and young people the skills and confidence to write their own
life story.

2020 Commissioner, Matthew Taylor
said:

"If power over education, and schooling in
particular, is to be devolved we will need to find local ways of reconciling
the needs of different individuals and institutions within a system which is
efficient, effective and fair. Forums that allow area-based citizen
deliberation are important not simply to helping us think through the future
shape of the more devolved and diverse local education system. They might also
be vital to the ongoing task of generating the awareness, insight and
collective commitment necessary to make such a system work for the every
learner and the whole community."

2020 Commissioner Julian Astle said:

"If the government did less, but did it better, improvement would
follow. It should define the core educational offering in a slimmed down
curriculum that gives teachers the space they need to teach and should design a
school accountability system that doesn't distort the teaching process. It
should guarantee fair access to schools through a consistently applied
admission system and also put in place a transparent system of deprivation
funding. Get this right, and the
government can probably leave the rest to schools and parents."

Lionel
Christolomme, Managing Director of Bouygues UK said:

"We are delighted
to have sponsored this important piece of research. As a leading
construction and services group involved in the delivery of schools, it is
important that we understand the ongoing debate concerning education policy and
its impact on the schools we design, in order to anticipate the government's
requirements."

ENDS

For more information
please contact Ashish Prashar on 07775 501 839

Notes to Editors

Shifts in culture, power and finance: a way forward for
education - What do students, parents and
professionals want from the education system?
Do the Commission's ideas on reforming public services suggest a better
way forward? This report sets out the
findings from a deliberative event in Peterborough in June 2010. Contributions from Matthew Taylor and Julian
Astle reflect on the themes that emerged.
They find an overly prescriptive system which undervalues teachers and
needs to engage parents more fully. Download
the report

Deliberation about the future of education in
Peterborough - as previously described, the purpose of the
deliberative research was to explore three issues: the purpose(s) of education; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats to education in Peterborough; and four scenarios illustrating
possible futures for education in the city. The deliberative event
lasted three hours. Participants spent most of the time in small groups of
between five and seven involved in moderator-led discussions. The findings of
the deliberative research are presented here.

The report was kindly
supported by Bouygues UK. Bouygues UK is a subsidiary of Bouygues
Construction - a world-leading construction and services group. The company
provides a fully integrated design, build, finance and operate service across a
broad range of sectors with a particular focus on
education, healthcare, housing and commercial as well as urban regeneration and
property development. www.bouygues-uk.com

The 2020 Public Services Trust is a registered charity
(no. 1124095), based at the RSA. It is not aligned with any political party and
operates with independence and impartiality. The Trust exists to stimulate
deeper understanding of the challenges facing public services in the medium
term. Through research, inquiry and discourse, it aims to develop rigorous and
practical solutions, capable of sustaining support across all political
parties. For more information about the
Trust please visit www.2020publicservicestrust.org

The Trust launched the Commission on 2020 Public
Services in December 2008, to recommend the characteristics of a new public
services settlement appropriate for the future needs and aspirations of
citizens, and the best practical arrangements for its implementation.

Commission
members span a wide breadth of political opinion,
experience and expertise from academia, business, the voluntary sector, and the
public policy and political world. Sir
Andrew Foster is the Chair, and members range from the Rt Hon Stephen Dorrell
MP and Bridget Rosewell to Lord Victor Adebowale and Matthew Taylor. The full list of members can be found here.

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